Passion Blog 5

Three Different wedding in China

First
My brother is going to get married today. I am so happy when I mentioned it. My parents were busy preparing for his dowry. Because my brother would like to have a different wedding, he insisted the dowry should be more meaningful rather than other substances. Both of two families picked an auspicious date as the Betrothal Day for my brother’s wedding. This is a formal meeting between my brother and his fiancee.
Almost afternoon, with the “snapping” sound of fireworks and limousines slowly approaching to the banquet. I and some kids holding saluting guns preemptively blocked the door. I saw my brother was wearing a new suit, his chest pinned a vivid and beautiful flower, was much more poise than I thought; The bride wearing a white dress, holding a bunch of showy flowers in her hands like a fairy. They were walking arm in arm to us leisurely, my brother’s face was filled with a happy smile.
I was seen in a daze, I did not know who shouted “Begin!” first. Streamers and confetti were sprinkled on the bride and groom. Applause, the bride, and groom entered the house with elders blessings!
Banquet began, people are immersed in the wedding and completely enjoyed it.

Second

It was my friend’s wedding. In the morning, she hurried off with me to the auditorium which could contain as much as four hundred people.

To begin with, gentle voice coming from violin made environment beautiful and quiet. I could not figure out whether it was fantasy or reality. The master of ceremonies announced that the bride and groom and their family entered. With holy music and company of her father, the couple walked into the hall slowly but firmly, came to the bridegroom’s side in the presence of all the witnesses. The groom took the bride’s hand from his father, and they both went to the front desk, where there was a priest, praying for them.

The groom gave mom and dad gift flowers, I could also not stop the tears about the scene I saw.

Third

The sky was overcast secretly. We were all nervous cause it was about 5 in the afternoon, but wedding car and the groom had not appeared. The bride could not be more worried, having phone calls frequently with tight eyebrows. Saw the bride like this The bridesmaid hasten sat near her: “ah, don’t worry, be happy, he will come too since you love him, believe him.” Listening to the word of the friend then the bride felt better. Outside the living room, people are already for the groom’s coming. It was getting dark, the groom was coming and people got excited. I stood at the door like a tricky sister, in order to ask my elder sister’s husband for some candy stalls. Finally, the man my sister missing appeared, “handsome man, I will not let you take my sister unless leave candy.” I said. The brother-in-law smiled and an old grandpa walked out of behind him, holding out a big bag, gave to me with courtesy. I had to let them in. After tossing in the night, they finally married and whole people sent their best wishes to this new couple.

Passion Blog 3

 

Nowadays, there are more and more people enthusiastic people put their attention on charities for promoting their self-worth. In order to follow the trend, I set up a foundation with my parents to extend so-called” Warmth Project” to help children who are born with congenital heart disease. At the second year after the foundation was established, I visited children of CHD and contributed an electric reader, and my original intention was to let him pass the dull surgical preparation period. Ironically, I talked curiously with the doctor who was taking care of operation day after, and he told me those parents of the patient already thrown away the electric reader we contributed because of the risk of the radiation. This unexpected result sets me thinking: Do I really understand the meaning of help or charity? Ordo they need the help that I thought they would? Am I really helping them in the correct direction?

My mother is a principal of a special school, which focuses on the children, who have ADHD problem. Communicating with both children and parents and helping them comprehend each other’s are my mother’s duties. Her works and career that she has been working on really taught me “Roses were given, fragrance in hand, and I got acquainted with a cardiothoracic surgeon called Dr. Xu in Zhejiang Children Hospital in my 7th grade. Furthermore, I thought I can help some patients through my hardworking and warm-hearted. As the result, the idea of setting up a foundation did become the reality; however, I didn’t really understand the lesson my mother taught me at that moment

After Dr. Xu told me the parents had thrown away the gift, my shock and embarrassment at first was a perfect index of how little I understood the action they did. Dr. Xu sighed softly and said the electric reader was harmful to CHD. And then, we discussed the patient that who needed help. Through this dialogue, I got some information that most the patient that needed help was comes from the inferior city, in which they were less developed and didn’t have enough money and opportunities to do the operation. More seriously, some children even past the best age period for treatment, which means that my ardor and hardworking helped nothing at all, it just like a kind of self-satisfaction and only inspired myself. The family that needed help got no improvement; they were struggling with real issues.

To achieve my original purposes of real assistances, I decided to adjust the operation model of the foundation- to participate more in the-the area of money donation and keep the positive attitude for communicating with the hospital in order to give them a chance to take treatment. Dr. Xu would give us a list of candidates, and helped us evaluate each of the patients to decide whether they needed money donation or operative change. Whenever I went to visit them after surgery, they always kept a smile on the face and full of hope about the future. At that moment, I vaguely smelled the fragrance from my hand.

Only after you understand their demands, then you could help them. Also, charity is not a kind of moving only touched by them. There is a word called SWEDOW(Stuff We Don’t Want) means the donation from the upper class but useless. I finally realized the staring for the ignorance and selfish charity couldn’t save us, also would never save others.“You are not a fish; how do you know what constitutes the requirement of fishes?”

Valuable treasure in my life

My father came from a small town called Majiaobu, the town that grows the most famous green tea in China. I spent nearly all of my childhood with that small town and the plantation which fulfilled by the memory I shared with my grandpa. That plantation deeply rooted in my heart and like a Pure land, which taught me where I came from, and where I belonged to. I told myself that I was passioned about the lifestyle that I experienced with my grandfather, and I might end up living in the mountain that I have climbed for over hundreds of times. However, there is no medicine for regrets, the memories I had with my grandpa was the most valuable passion I was looking for. The plantation in my heart was formed with those memories with my grandpa, because of that I’m no longer a vagrant who trying to find a homeland.

Five years ago, West Lake’s successful application to become a World Culture Heritage site placed urban renovation at the top of local government’s agenda. My nearby hometown, Maojiabu, took the brunt of urbanization, despite its recognition as the only historical district that reflects Hangzhou’s traditional lifestyle along the lake. When the government of Hangzhou announced development plans for my town, I was surprised how others saw my home differently than I did: a place where green tea is grown traditionally and where antique buildings display inscriptions of our heritage. Would Maojiaburemain its essence after all the renovation?

I remember standing silently in front of the warning signs by the construction site, watching revered buildings break into small pieces. My memory of the space grew murky like the clouds of dust in front of me. Grandpa patted my shoulder and mentioned dinner to make me snap back into reality, but fleeting remnants of the past were ubiquitous. Returning to my grandparents’ house, I saw smoke curling from the chimney with the fragrance of tea filling the air.

During the meal, Grandpa told me stories of his day and reminisced about my childhood—details that I had long forgotten such as my first time using a tea-pan or when I got stuck between two tea trees. I felt time fleeing away as I heard my Grandpa’s stories over a meal of my favorite foods.

The next day, my grandfather and I went to the tea garden early in the morning, bringing a bucket of cold water from the well to begin a new day.

Tagore once wrote in Stray Birds: “If you shed tears when you miss the sun, you also miss the stars.” I cherish the lessons I learned from Grandpa as the most valuable treasure in my life, so I maintain his garden as my creative homage to heritage in the face of modern pressure. Whenever I stroll through my family’s tea garden, a surge of warmth fills my heart, like the morning rain that nourishes new tea buds.

 

Charity is not about giving.

It is not uncommon for people my age to want to be involved in charity work. As my mother once told me, “The fragrance always remains in the hand that gives the rose,” and there is a good feeling a person gets when he or she does something positive for others. It is with this motivation that I decided to start my own “Warmth Project” after meeting cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Xu at the Zhejiang Children’s Hospital in 9th grade.

From him, I learned that there were a number of young children in the area suffering from congenital heart disease, a problem that is growing because of exposure to pollution. I decided to find a way to make their hospital stays a little easier. eBooks were my great solution, as it was something fun and education they could use to fill their time in bed. We raised money through our community, and I felt proud that I could make their lives a little better.
In the second year, I went back and visited one of the children to whom we had given one of the eBooks; he was still in the hospital. However, when I asked him where it was, he seemed to look away and get nervous. The doctor pulled me aside to tell me that his family had actually already sold it.

At first, I was mad. I couldn’t believe that they would be so disrespectful toward a gift that I had organized and given to them. Was it for nothing?

But then Dr. Xu gave me some necessary context for the situation. These were people who really needed money; in fact, most of these cases involved families who had extreme difficulty paying for their medical treatment. In this specific instance, the boy’s mother was a cook in a small restaurant, and his father worked in a factory. Simply, the last thing they really needed was an eBook.

I was immediately mortified by my self-righteous response, and it made me question my motivations for the work I had done. A true hero does things for others for no reason besides goodness and altruism. If that had been me, I wouldn’t have been so concerned with my own feelings.

It’s true that there is a great feeling you get when you do something for someone else, but this experience taught me the valuable lesson that if I go looking for that feeling, it will never come because I am actually doing the opposite, doing something for myself. Yes, the fragrance remains in the hand that gives the rose, but that assumes it’s a rose you’re giving. A true gift is one that is thoughtful and aware; if I want to help people, I must learn what they need, not imagine what I would like to give.

So, our new operation morphed to help clear the hospital bills families to acquire as a result of such terrible circumstances. Dr. Xu gives us a list of potential candidates, and together, we evaluate each patient to decide what kind of help they need and figure out how we can reach the greatest number of people. In the past three years, we have helped thirty-two different families from seven different cities pay for their children’s medical treatment.

The ‘good feeling’ people talk about isn’t so simple. If you leave any situation that involves so much hurt and suffering feeling totally happy, you don’t fully understand. It is hard to look at the list of names longer than we can manage, and it is bittersweet to learn a great appreciation for the health, happiness, and prosperity that I have taken for granted my whole life.

But still, I sometimes have the joy of visiting one of the children after their surgery, and I see a big smile on their face, full of hope about the future, and for a brief moment, I smell something like roses.